In 1939, the New York World's
Fair opened in Flushing Meadow on the theme of "Building
The World Of Tomorrow" offering to fairgoers a vision of
what life would be like in the decades ahead. The General Motors
"Futurama" attraction was the centerpiece of this philosophy
taking riders on a moving tram past a detailed model of the city
of tomorrow, circa 1960, offering such visions that eventually
did come to pass as superhighways, and also fanciful ideas that
did not come to pass (giant hangars for passenger dirigibles,
whose days were already numbered in 1939). Everyone came away
awed but there was one flurry of controversy surrounding Futurama.
That was when someone noticed that amidst all the detailed models
and maps of the cities and communities of tomorrow, one thing
was missing. None of the cities and towns of tomorrow seemingly
had any room for churches. Did this suggest that in the World
of Tomorrow man's need for God would not be there any longer
thanks to technology? Embarrassed, General Motors had Futurama's
designer Norman Bel Geddes rectify this for the 1940 Fair season.
The revised Futurama showed how determined GM was to show they
had meant no harm to the devout as the models now sported more
than 400 churches dotting the landscapes.

A quarter century later,
as Robert Moses made his preparations for the 1964 Fair on the
same site, he would go out of his way to make this new version
of the Fair as friendly to religious sensibilities as it possibly
could. This fair would have none of the burlesque side-show attractions
of the original's Amusement Area, where such figures as Gypsy
Rose Lee had performed at various points. In the end, religion
would be represented by no fewer than six distinct pavilions
representing all of the major denominations of Christianity as
well as an America-Israel pavilion to represent Judaism. In doing
this Moses recognized the trends that had seen a rise in American
churchgoing since the end of World War II and the onset of the
Cold War. Throughout the 1950s, as America took on the perceived
role of the defender of Western Civilization, many Americans
found strength in the country's religious heritage which had
expressed itself as early as the 17th century in John Winthrop's
declaration of America as "the shining city on a hill"
destined by God for greatness. This renewed burst of American
religiosity had led to such symbolic steps as adding "under
God" to the Pledge of Allegiance and also making "In
God We Trust" the country's national motto, and required
on all American coins and paper money. It was also a time when
Hollywood reflected the trend through numerous productions of
Biblical-based movies such as Ben Hur, The Ten Commandments
and even the story of former U.S. Senate chaplain Peter Marshall
in 1954's A Man Called Peter.

No single individual better
embodied these trends of the last two decades than the Reverend
Billy Graham. After rocketing to fame in the late 1940s when
the publisher William Randolph Hearst had been impressed by the
young preacher's melding of traditional evangelical oratory with
strong anti-communist rhetoric, Graham had, in the two decades
since, carved out a reputation as America's unofficial national
pastor. His crusading activities had taken him across America
and around the world and his friendships with Dwight D. Eisenhower
and Lyndon Johnson had even made him at times an unofficial presidential
advisor. Through it all the evangelist managed to win across-the-board
admiration and respect from all denominations, as well as Jewish
organizations who approved of how Graham was able to accomplish
something none of his predecessors of generations past had done.
Which was advocate his simple message of conservative Christian
theology while at the same time building bridges of friendship
to liberal Protestant, Catholic and Jewish organizations, and
avoiding any stigma of bigotry. With this track record it was
no surprise that year after year polls always revealed Billy
Graham to be among the most admired men in America. Given the
temper of the times that led to the creation of the 1964 World's
Fair, it was inevitable that if religion were to play a prominent
role in the Fair, the Billy Graham Evangelical Association (BGEA)
would find a place at the table. (In 1962, the BGEA recognized
the value of association with a World's Fair when it sponsored
a Crusade in the Seattle area during the height of the Century
21 Fair culminating in a one night rally at the Fair itself for
which all amusement areas were shut down in order to accommodate
the rally.) The only question though was how would they make
their presence felt?

On February 17, 1962, the
BGEA received its first feeler about participating in the 1964
Fair when Marshall Miller, president of Books International,
wrote to BGEA Secretary-Treasurer George Wilson about the plans
of the Protestant Council of New York to sponsor a "Protestant
Center" pavilion, in which numerous denominations from the
Protestant and Orthodox churches would rent individual exhibition
space. Owing to the BGEA's prestige within American Protestantism,
he said he could " well envision considerable participation
by your group in the programs which the Center will sponsor,"
and added, "Perhaps you may desire to rent space in the
exhibition area." When Wilson passed this along to BGEA
Teams Leader, Bob Ferm though, he seemed to interpret Miller's
latter remark as an indicator that the BGEA might want to rent
space outside the Protestant Center altogether which indicated
that, from the start, there was some trepidation about having
the BGEA presence at the Fair be just part of one group among
many in the same building.

By the summer of 1962,
after more direct pitches had been made from the Protestant Council
about taking part, the BGEA had come to the conclusion that a
separate pavilion was more in their best interest. Participation
in the Protestant Center would have limited the BGEA to showing
a film at designated times in rotation with other denominations
that would be offering their films as well. Of more concern to
Ferm though was that "our overall conception of evangelistic
outreach would be considerably limited or even definitely injured"
if the BGEA found itself in the same building surrounded by exhibitions
from other Protestant denominations and organizations. "In
their striving to be ecumenical," he wrote, "I fear
it will be difficult to convey a clear and concise message."
He also wondered if part of the reason why the Protestant Center
was anxious to have the BGEA's presence in their pavilion stemmed
from the realization that Billy Graham's name could be a powerful
advertising tool to boost attendance for a presentation that,
from the BGEA's standpoint, would not serve their own interests
well of trying to use the Fair as a showcase for their evangelical
message.

The decision to go for
an independent pavilion was reached at a BGEA Board of Directors
meeting in June which Graham attended. On August 10, 1962, George
Wilson met with Robert Moses and other Fair executives in New
York to discuss the guidelines for an independent pavilion. Wilson
found Moses quite receptive to the idea of the BGEA having its
own building, in part because the scope of Graham's ministry
on a global scale entitled him to it. Moses also felt that the
Protestant Council had done a poor job with their "Protestant
Witness" pavilion at the Century 21 Fair in Seattle and
questioned whether they'd be able to raise the money needed for
their ambitious plans for New York, which made it more to the
BGEA's advantage to go it alone with their own project. The guidelines
were laid out as to what the BGEA would have to do, what their
pavilion could be like in terms of overall design, and from that
point on, there was no turning back as far as their plans for
1964 were concerned.

It took a bit longer though,
for the Protestant Council to realize that the BGEA was now irrevocably
out of the picture as far as the Protestant Center was concerned
and this led to some divided reaction. On September 27, 1962,
Marshall Miller, now program director for the Protestant Center,
wrote to Wilson and urged the BGEA to reconsider its plans for
a separate pavilion. He pointed out that while the BGEA had established
itself as an organization that had learned to cultivate friendly
ties with Catholic and Jewish organizations, it was still nonetheless
an integral part of the American Protestant movement and that
to have a separate pavilion might confuse the uninitiated, non-churchgoing
visitor into thinking that the BGEA itself constituted a separate
faith from Protestantism, Catholicism and Judaism in general.
He spoke of a conversation with one Fair official who was "surprised
to know that the Billy Graham Association was on speaking terms
with the Protestant Council" because "he thought your
doctrines were quite different from that of Protestantism."
Even if the BGEA felt the need to have its own building for more
showings of their own movie, he still urged the balance of their
participation in the Fair to take place within the Protestant
Center.

Another letter from former
Protestant Council president Emilio Knechtle was sent to Bob
Ferm that same week and seemed resigned to the idea that the
BGEA intended to go it alone. "I certainly can understand
this reason and I have no intention of trying to persuade you
to participate in the exhibit of the Protestant Council."
Wilson's reply to Miller is not known, but Ferm's reply to Knechtle
assured him that the BGEA "would not stand in opposition"
to whatever the Protestant Council ultimately did at the Fair
and that cooperation on areas of common concern would be possible.
From that point on the Protestant Council made no further effort
to dissuade the BGEA (eventually, two other Protestant organizations,
Wycliffe Bible Translators and Moody Bible Institute, would also
go ahead with plans for separate Fair pavilions.)

With plans now finalized
for their own pavilion, attention now turned toward getting it
designed and built. At the August meeting with Robert Moses it
was suggested that an architect be commissioned who would be
willing to do the work for nothing or for just out-of-pocket
expense and that it would be better to not apply a litmus test
of individual belief in finding an architect. In the end, the
job of designing the pavilion would go to Edward Durrell Stone,
a New York architect who had designed the U.S. Pavilion at the
1958 Brussels World's Fair, and would show his own brand of ecumenicalism
by designing the Christian Science Pavilion for the Fair in addition
to the Billy Graham Pavilion.

Groundbreaking for the
Graham Pavilion began on March 1, 1963, but due to illness, Graham
was not able to attend. So the ceremonies marking the groundbreaking
were pushed back to April 17. All of the Fair's leading officials
were present in addition to Graham and the key members of the
BGEA. In his remarks, Graham stressed the uniqueness of the pavilion,
saying, "We do not intend to duplicate the effort of others."
While stressing that the Pavilion would be devoted to its goal
of preaching its specific Christian evangelical message, in a
nod to broader ecumenicalism he also said, "This pavilion
will also be a call to renew our faith in God, whether we be
of the Jewish, Catholic or Protestant faith, or whatever religious
affiliation." These remarks were vintage Graham, showing
how in his powerful, charismatic style he could simultaneously
declare his unflagging devotion to the spread of Christian doctrine
while at the same time avoid any appearances of being critical
of other denominations. In closing remarks, Robert Moses said,
"I doubt whether anywhere there is anybody who hasn't heard
about Billy Graham, and we are delighted to have him here."

THIS SKETCH BY HOWARD
SANDEN SHOWS THE PROPOSED BILLY GRAHAM PAVILION AT THE 1964-1965
NEW YORK WORLD'S FAIR. IT WILL CONTAIN AN AIR-CONDITIONED "THEATRE-IN-THE-ROUND"
SEATING APPROXIMATELY SIX HUNDRED PERSONS. GROUND BREAKING CEREMONIES
WERE HELD FEBRUARY 6. IT IS EXPECTED THAT FIVE MILLION PERSONS
WILL VISIT THE PAVILION EACH SEASON OF THE FAIR.

Source: DECISION
Magazine, March 1963

The Fair president had
also in his remarks noted that the Graham pavilion had a good
location to attract crowds, situated on 50,000 square feet near
the main entrance on New York Avenue with exits also leading
to the Avenue of Europe. The pavilion itself was an octagonal
design and eventually went through several modifications. Original
seating plans for the theater, estimated as high as 500, were
ultimately scaled back to 400. Early plans for a 150 seat chapel
were also dropped with counseling rooms located at the back of
the theater deemed sufficient for ministry purposes. A later
addition was a 100 foot tower next to the pavilion which would
prominently display the name "Billy Graham Pavilion"
and be topped by a golden sunburst. (This proved to be the one
feature that presented problems in construction. The sunburst
ended up being damaged in transit on its way to New York and
had 15 to 20 of its rods removed before it could be installed.
After it was put in place, several more rods fell out prompting
a complaint from the BGEA to the contractors that they did not
want to be held responsible for any accidents that might arise
from more rods falling out, or if the sunburst collapsed altogether,
since they had urged it not be installed under these conditions.
Eventually, the problem was rectified.)

Source: DECISION
Magazine, October 1964

World's Fair Ministry

By the time the New York World's Fair closes its first
season on October 18, half a million persons are expected to
have seen the wide-screen Todd-AO color film Man in the 5th
Dimension at the Billy Graham Pavilion, according to Dan
Piatt, Pavilion director.

By mid-August the number of
viewers had passed 397,000 and some 1,850 persons had registered
commitments to Christ in the Pavilion's counseling room. The
regular counseling staff was augmented this summer by 12 young
Inter-Varsity students; 4,000 persons per day have entered the
circular air-conditioned theater.

Paul Leonard, director of
counseling, reports that students predominate among those who
are making commitments and decisions in the counseling rooms,
but that people from all walks of life and from many nations
have also been inquirers. Among them have been:

WHO
WOULD HAVE THOUGHT THAT A PERSON COULD FIND JESUS CHRIST AT THE
WORLD'S FAIR! YET THAT IS WHAT IS HAPPENING TO THESE PEOPLE WHO
STAYED FOR COUNSELING AFTER SEEING THE FILM 'MAN IN THE 5TH DIMENSION'
AT THE GRAHAM PAVILION.

A 29-year-old graduate psychologist
from Detroit.

A 35-year-old divorcee who
had been teaching Sunday School but, by her own statement, "did
not know the Lord."

A Hungarian woman who heard
about the Pavilion ministry from an uncle in Hungary.

A dentist from Columbus, Ohio,
who was counseled by another dentist.

The Pavilion will reopen next
April with a set of freshly trained counselors.

The 50 foot high movie
screen would present daily showings of a film produced by the
BGEA's film company, World Wide Pictures, entitled "Man
In The 5th Dimension." The theme of the 28-minute movie,
shot in the expensive 70mm widescreen Todd-AO process, was clearly
designed to harmonize Graham's evangelical message of individual
conversion to Christ within the framework of the historic and
scientific messages to be found in the other pavilions of the
Fair. What emerged was a film that presented traditional Graham,
preaching through the techniques of storytelling that could also
be found in such other Fair presentations as Kodak's "The
Searching Eye", Johnson Wax' "To Be Alive", the
U.S. Pavilion's "American Journey" and the Travelers
Insurance, "Triumph Of Man." Billy Graham was shown
at Mount Palomar observatory and in a science lab expressing
admiration for what science had been able to tell us about the
universe (which in itself demonstrated how far Evangelical preaching
had come from the turn of the century when the typical reaction
of conservative Christians to scientific discoveries that seemingly
conflicted with the Bible was to take the approach that ultimately
led to William Jennings Bryan's humiliation in the Scopes Trial).
Like "The Searching Eye," viewers were given sights
of the wonders of the natural world and the distant universe.
Like "American Journey," there was a celebration of
the nation's past when Billy Graham quoted George Washington,
Benjamin Franklin and Abraham Lincoln to stress the religious
principles America had been founded on as the key to her greatness.
Like "The Triumph Of Man," Graham highlighted those
moments in history that had made a critical difference in man's
existence (in this case, the Fall of Adam, and the life, death
and Resurrection of Christ). And it could be said that by wrapping
the meaning of life up in the need for Christian conversion,
"Man In The 5th Dimension" built on the message of
"To Be Alive" (which simply celebrated life itself),
by noting how much better it feels to be alive once one has converted.
Whatever the merits of the film's final content, there could
be no disputing that the Graham Association had managed to grasp
the underlying pulse of the Fair's broader themes when it came
time to putting their stamp on the experience and in so doing
succeeded in making the Graham Pavilion a natural part of the
Fair's surroundings.

When the Fair closed in
October 1965, the Billy Graham Pavilion claimed an attendance
of over five million, which placed it third overall in terms
of attendance for a religious pavilion. (The Vatican Pavilion,
with its display of Michelangelo's Pieta, was the overwhelming
winner with 27 million attending, second highest of any Fair
pavilion, while the Mormon Pavilion drew slightly more than the
Graham Pavilion at 5.8 million.) As one of four religious pavilions
that required donations rather than admission charges to break
even, the Graham Pavilion was the only one that succeeded in
doing so. By contrast, the Protestant-Orthodox Center that had
tried unsuccessfully to woo Graham for their efforts, only drew
half the number of visitors that went to the Graham Pavilion,
while their own film "Parable," which required a fifty
cent ticket in contrast to "Man In The 5th Dimension's"
free admission, only drew half as many visitors as the 1.25 million
who saw the Graham movie. The Protestant Center ultimately reported
the highest debt of any religious pavilion at the Fair at over
$250,000.

Source: DECISION
Magazine, December 1964

Some 2,360,000
persons visited the Billy Graham Pavilion at the New York World's
Fair during the 1964 season, it was announced by Dan Piatt, director,
after closing day on October 18.

Over half a million,
or 590,654, viewed the Pavilion film 'Man in the 5th Dimension.'
some 2,670 persons remained behind for counseling regarding their
relationship t Christ. the total seasonal attendance at the Fair
was given as 33,374,000

The Pavilion
will reopen for the 1965 season on April 21.

In terms of actual conversion
figures, Dan Piatt, director of the Graham Pavilion, stated that
five percent of those who had seen the film, or approximately
5,000, had received counseling from BGEA staff members at the
Pavilion, with people from over 55 nations taking part. The Christian
Science and Mormon pavilions claimed slightly higher figures
for their efforts but Protestantism in general also received
a boost in the several thousand claimed each by both the Protestant
Center and Moody Bible Institute's "Sermons From Science."
Ultimately, Protestant Center Director Dan Potter conceded that
the diverse number of pavilions, even among Protestant groups,
was "the only way it could have been done here."

Assessing the long-term
impact the Graham ministry had in its efforts in New York is
an impossible task given how the organization through the years
has never been able to gauge the measure of how many of those
who may have taken a first step toward conversion at a Graham
crusade or rally were able to follow-up with a subsequently strong
Christian commitment. What can be seen from the perspective of
40 years later though, is how the Graham Ministry's involvement
at the Fair blended in perfectly with the temper of the times,
where the early Cold War period had only heightened the desire
for more public acknowledgments of the importance of religion
in everyday American life, which had seemingly been ignored at
first glance by the organizers of the 1939 Fair. Even as the
Fair was ending though, the domestic turbulence associated with
America in the 1960s was already beginning to make its presence
felt and would ultimately shatter much of that earlier consensus
about American society that had existed in the 1950s and early
1960s. While today's polls show that the overwhelming majority
of Americans do profess some belief in God, there is seemingly
less recognition in a more permissive society today of the importance
of religion as an integral part of everyday American life with
even many believers stressing more religion's role as a private
matter that should not intrude too much upon the broader public
world (a mindset that even a strict Fundamentalist or Evangelical
in the Graham tradition might advocate today on the grounds that
Christianity is better off avoiding the corrupting instincts
to be found in today's world through too much interaction).

Given that mindset, it
is perhaps unlikely that, were an endeavor like the New York
World's Fair ever mounted again, one would see the prominence
that religion was given at Flushing Meadow in 1964. And if religion
were to seem absent from the pictures of everyday life and the
prognostications of the future, it is even less likely that there
would be any kind of backlash aimed at rectifying it as took
place with the Futurama exhibit in 1939. Through that lens then,
the presence of the Billy Graham Pavilion at the New York World's
Fair, truly represents a window into a vanished part of American
life from the middle period of the 20th century.

* * *

&COPY; Copyright
2002, Eric Paddon -- reprints of this essay without permission
of the author are not allowed.

Eric Paddon taught
History at Wheaton (IL) College where the papers of Dr. Billy
Graham are kept. His dissertation on Dr. Graham's friendships
with U.S. presidents will soon be published as a book. He grew
up in Chatham, NJ and remembers his first view of the World's
Fair site in the mid-1980s en route to a Mets game and being
drawn to the sight of the eternally stopped Sky-Streak elevator
in the New York State Pavilion. You can contact Eric by e-mail
at epaddon@aol.com